> I'm afraid I didn't get a lot of that, as I know nothing about French... :-{
>
> But the fact is, we live in a patriarchal society. This does not bother me. It does not bother me that "humanity" has the word "man" in it. I am not offended by this in anyway. Some people are, apparently. I don't get this at all. I don't get why people would think that this is *important.* I don't at all understand how someone can think changing "mailman" to "postal worker" solves anything. It only clutters up the language and makes everything more awkward. It's not going to change the fact that our society was and is patriarchal and, in most cases, male oriented.
>
> Am I making any sense? I know I can trust what people *here* say, unlike the responses I've gotten elsewhere. :-P
>
> ~Mina "getting fed up" moon

You know, I say the same thing about censoring. How does it remove the offensiveness to replace a "bad" word with a loud piercing one-second beep? It doesn't, any more than changing "mailman" to "postal worker" removes the possibly offense. You're only offended if you choose to be offended. I think it's just human nature to want to disagree. If you found a way to power the entire world for a year from a bucket of water, there would be somebody stepping up and saying "Hey, that's wrong" or "Hey, you can't do that because something which is of absolutely no worth might be harmed". Nobody can ever agree on anything. Like the site poll that said "Vote Yes Below". Some people voted No, some probably just to be different. Difference is OK, of course. It's bad if everyone is sheep, and it's bad if nobody agrees on anything.

There are some things that ARE unacceptable. Terms like "towelhead" and "(a word starting with N referring to African-Americans)". But there is absolutely nothing wrong with the word "mailman".

Political-correctness in general is pointless and all it does is make it hard to talk. People used to be able to talk freely, then political-correctness came. "Mailman" became "postal worker". "Cop" became "Law Enforcement Officer". I wouldn't be surprised to see the Law Enforcement Officer ask for a Receptacle of Thinly Sugar-Coated Baked Dough Toruses (box of donuts).

Do I have a point? Uh, no, I was just ranting. I need some tea.